Since the beginning of this year, we’ve been working with The 99 Percent – a group of very dedicated New Yorkers who are passionate about helping creative workers execute better. At the helm is Scott Belsky, author of “Making Ideas Happen” – a great read for ANYONE with ideas!

Recently, The 99 Percent’s Jocelyn Glei wrote On Keeping it Simple – explaining three different practices that can help simplify everyday tasks, distractions and as Jocelyn writes “brain clutter”.

With all the brain clutter around mobile solutions, we thought we’d simplify things a little bit by creating two new videos explaining how the BlackBerry® solution can help you and your business communicate better. “Start Your Business” and “Grow Your Business” are each tailored to talk you through the different mobile tools that can help you get more done, and simplify your communications.

Anita Campbell, Founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of Small Business Trends

Since I’ve been at Research In Motion® (RIM®), I’ve been very lucky to be able to work directly with quite a few small business owners and small-medium business (SMB) experts. At the moment, RIM is the premiere sponsor of the Top 100 SMB Influencers Contest, being conducted by Small Business Trends and SmallBizTechnology.com. Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends and Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com have been writing articles, creating tools and speaking at events for years, with a mission to make it easier than ever for small businesses to thrive in today’s economy. I’ve watched their work from afar for quite some time, so I’m thrilled to interview Anita about the SMB Influencer contest.

Anita, can you give our readers an overview of what the Top 100 SMB Influencers contest is all about?

The Top 100 Small Business Influencers contest recognizes the companies, people and organizations that support the small business community in the United States and Canada. The requirements to be nominated are that the person, company or organization must have accomplished or produced something that positively impacts a group of small businesses. I am thrilled with the response — so far there have been nearly 400 nominations.

After nominations close, there will be a voting period to choose the Top 100 Small Business Influencers.

How do you think it benefits the small business community to have these SMB Influencers?

A lot is said about small businesses being the lifeblood of the economy and unsung heroes – and that’s true. But the entities and people who make it their missions to serve small businesses sometimes get even less recognition. My partner in this initiative, Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com, and I thought we should do something about that.

Ramon and I had actually been kicking around this idea for 18 months. We both follow the players in the small business market closely, due to providing the information to small businesses that we do. Initially we were planning to create a list of who we (and a few others) thought were key influencers of the small business market, to recognize them. But then we got to thinking about it, and decided we’d get better results if we allowed the public to nominate. And are we glad we did! We’ve already seen much more diversity in the nominees than if we had tried to create a list on our own. There have been dozens of fascinating nominations. More heads really are better than a few.

Who can nominate a SMB Influencer? When is the deadline to do so?

Anyone can submit a nomination. You don’t even have to register. The deadline to nominate is July 8, 2011, at 11:59 pm Los Angeles time. Our team reviews all nominations to make sure they meet minimum requirements and are complete.

How will the top 100 SMB Influencers be selected? What do they win?

There are two parts to the selection: the community gets to vote (counts for 40%) and then our expert panel of judges will vote (counts for 60%). This way, we get the input of the community – who THEY think is influential. We also have the input of our expert judges who live, breathe, eat and sleep “small business.”

What do they win? Much deserved recognition. We’re planning an awards gala on September 13, 2011 in New York City to honor as many of the top influencers as can attend.

We also have some great stuff we’re giving away – some to the influencers and some to the community helping with the initiative. For instance, we just gave away two of the new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets on Twitter®.

Have you, in your own business, had an experience with an influencer that really made an impact on your outlook or way you approached a challenge?

I have been influenced in hundreds of ways. Consider the technology products we use in my business. We couldn’t have built the business and achieved the success we’ve had, were it not for inexpensive yet powerful technology. We run websites and online communities as a business – I couldn’t imagine doing so without reliable hosting, a dedicated Web design and development team, open source software such as WordPress™, savvy Internet marketers and social media. Behind all of that technology are companies and people with vision – they ultimately made it possible for my business to thrive.

Just imagine if we’d had to launch this initiative in the days before social media such as Twitter and Facebook®. There’s no way we could have built up this level of community support in the space of a month, without social media. We’d have needed a multimillion-dollar TV deal, plus a magazine and newspaper ad campaign to spread the word.

Just because I’m curious – you went from being a lawyer, to being a small business owner. What do you think your biggest challenge was as you made the transition?

Luckily I had a lot of corporate business experience in between. But I’d say the biggest challenge is also the biggest attraction: making decisions everyday that will either make or break my business. Sometimes the decisions weigh heavily – yet I wouldn’t have it any other way. Having the freedom and independence to create a business and see my vision take shape is exhilarating. I may not be sure if a decision will be a huge win or a colossal mistake. Decisions have an element of risk. But I have the profound satisfaction of creating something from nothing – and I love to do that. That makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks so much for this interview, Anita! Readers – we’d love for you to nominate someone that has influenced you and your small business, so head over to the contest website to get started and for complete details!

A few months back, we took the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet on a tour across the US, introducing small and medium sized businesses to what a tablet could do for their business.

It was awesome hearing all of the different business problems a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet might solve, so we decided to capture some on the video above! Check out these customers from Salt Lake City talking about how they see the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet helping their businesses day-to-day.

Have a specialized use-case for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in your environment? Tell us about it!

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/06/sprint-blackberry-playbook-roadshow/feed/0hilarya1Trade Up and Get Paid Up!http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/05/blackberry-trade-up-program/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/05/blackberry-trade-up-program/#commentsTue, 17 May 2011 19:07:03 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=6013]]>

Just something quick I’d like to pass on today – info about the BlackBerry® Trade Up Program!

From now until August 27, 2011, if you’re based in North America, you can trade up to a new BlackBerry smartphone, and in return, get up to $100 for your old one! You can trade in any old (but still working!) BlackBerry® Pearl™, BlackBerry® Curve™, BlackBerry® Bold™, BlackBerry® Storm™, BlackBerry® Tour™, BlackBerry® 8700 Series or BlackBerry® 8800 Series smartphone.

So if you’re about ready to get a new BlackBerry smartphone, get started with your quote (Canada or the United States) right away! If you’re looking for additional details about the BlackBerry Trade Up Program, check out our FAQ page.

Have a question about the program that’s not answered through the FAQ page? Just ask by posting a comment below!

We’ve built BlackBerry Balance with everyone in your company in mind. Employees will be happy knowing they can carry the BlackBerry® smartphone that best suits their needs and personality; your Chief Risk Officer and IT admins will be relieved knowing that they can now secure business information on personal devices; and everyone will be more connected knowing that one device lets you access both personal and corporate data.

Other features of BlackBerry Balance have been designed to allow you to:

Manage IT policies that define a line between work and personal data: Applications and data pushed to BlackBerry smartphones from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server are identified and restricted from being accessed by personal applications (if the IT policy is set to this restriction) to help keep business information secure. Personal applications cannot access business information, and business information cannot be copy-and-pasted into personal applications or email messages.

Use your existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server infrastructure, so there’s little or no need to add to your current architecture.

Keep data secure and protect the network: BlackBerry Balance technology allows business information to be removed from smartphones while leaving personal information intact. If an employee leaves the organization, administrators can remotely wipe only business information from a BlackBerry smartphone. Or, if a device is lost or stolen, an administrator can wipe all information from the device to help ensure both the business’ and the user’s personal information don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Hey, IT administrators – are you the seasoned veteran when it comes to BlackBerry® Enterprise Server experience, or are you a newbie just starting out? No matter what your skill level may be, we’ve got a comprehensive suite of BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0x courses that can help you get the most out of your product.

Overall, our BlackBerry platform training takes a “roll up your sleeves” approach to learning, which is a great fit when it comes to sharpening your skills with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. As a participant, you’ll get to train with a simulated BlackBerry Enterprise Server environment and have access to an array of hands-on labs and classroom activities. It will also provide a fantastic opportunity to interact with fellow BlackBerry Administrators, so you can exchange tips and tricks you might have picked up!

Available to all of our participants is the choice between our core BlackBerry Enterprise Server courses – Essential & Comprehensive v5.0x – to give you the complete fundamentals of the latest software, which is great for both beginners and experienced users alike. Additionally, you can learn how to effectively troubleshoot your environment using log files by taking our newest course – BlackBerry Enterprise Server Advanced Troubleshooting using Log Files (ATL). Also, our Essential course has been expanded to include everything you need to know about BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express – we’ll show you how to go beyond email integration and utilize the many possibilities of this product.

All of the BlackBerry® platform training courses have class sizes limited to 12 students, and are developed by experts from Research In Motion® (RIM®) and trainers that are skilled at helping participants understand, absorb and retain knowledge. If your goal is certification, our experience and training along with self-study will help prepare you.

If any of the above interests you, courses are available via our Open Session program in several regions and countries. Check out the Open Session schedule to see when we will be in your area! (Please note that these are priced at $1275 per two-day Open Session, subject to discounts depending on levels of T-Support.)

Have you attended a BlackBerry Training course in the past? What did you think?

In a few simple steps, users can activate their personal BlackBerry® smartphones over their employer’s wireless network, giving the IT administrator a simple way to support employee-owned smartphones. And since smartphones can be activated without having to connect them to a computer, it’s easier than ever for personal use devices to be securely connected to corporate mail, calendar, contacts and more.

To activate, you will need to:

Step 1: Enter the BlackBerry App World™ storefront from your BlackBerry smartphone and download the “Enterprise Activation” application. (Did we mention it can be downloaded for free?)

Step 4: Hit Activate and you will begin getting your work data within minutes!

Note: For this wireless enterprise activation app to work, you’ll need to be running BlackBerry® Device Software version 5.0 or higher, and be on a full BlackBerry Internet Service plan from your carrier, a compatible version of either BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express or MDaemon Messaging Server, BlackBerry Edition, and a supported BlackBerry smartphone.

We’re excited about what this means for businesses of any size – we’ve seen firsthand how powerful people within a business can be when they’re connected. Download the app today and let us know what you think!

If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of time on conference calls – and if you’re on the go, a lot of those calls are done on your smartphone. With work days being so hectic, we’re always looking for a solution to make connecting easier – so we’re happy to announce that BlackBerry® Mobile Conferencing is now available (and FREE!) in BlackBerry Beta Zone.

BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing was designed to offer the following features:

One Click Join: When it’s time for your meeting appointment to begin, you get a pop-up display that can dial into the meeting without you having to remember or dial lengthy phone and access code combinations.

Reconnecting: If your call accidentally drops from the conference, the application allows you to reconnect with one easy click.

Smart Number Selection: When there are multiple phone numbers in the invitation for participants in different locations, the application is designed to choose the most appropriate number for you (limited to North American phone numbers only). You can also choose to change the suggested dial-in number manually.

Easy Conference Scheduling: Turn almost any meeting invite into a conference call with just a single click. You can also store reservationless or recurring conference information to your conference profile on your BlackBerry smartphone so you can include it in conference call meetings you schedule from your device.

Protect Your Host Codes: When sending conference call meeting invitations using conference profile information, participants see only the information they need to join the call. Moderator codes are kept hidden and only used to join the meeting organizer into conference calls in cases where the code is required to open the conference bridge.

Note: The BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing application requires BlackBerry® Device Software version 5.0 or later, and is only available for US and Canada users at this time.

BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing is designed to make scheduling, joining and rejoining conference calls from your device quick and easy. Plus, because it’s an app, it’s easy to deploy and manage for the IT admin in your life!

We’ll be adding more presentations from our subject matter experts as well as our Developer, Help and Product Teams. But if you’d like to see something specific, just let us know and we’ll do our best to find it!

We invite you to check us out on SlideShare and leave a comment, follow us or share a presentation you’ve enjoyed through Twitter® or LinkedIn!

We’ve been having a great time at HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society)! HIMSS is the annual Healthcare Industry show, where we go to meet with current and future customers, demo our new products and applications, and see what’s new in the healthcare industry.

This year, we’re exhibiting with a few of our solution partners: Vocera, Connexall®, and AmCom. We’re also happy to be showing off the upcoming BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and its many uses within Healthcare.

We are also joined by some outstanding customers sharing their BlackBerry® solution success stories: Stony Brook University Medical Center, UPMC Mercy Hospital, Integris Health and CSC. Additionally, we’re excited to be premiering the above video that we’ve created featuring our customer, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, showcasing the BlackBerry solution for Nursing.

If you’re at HIMSS, come check us out at our booth #2519. If you’re following the show from your office, check us out @BlackBerry4Biz, where we’re live-tweeting! You can also follow the hashtag #HIMSS11 for complete show updates.

Are you a healthcare professional? Are you attending HIMSS 2011? What do you think of the show so far?

Earlier this month, FedEx Office introduced FedEx Office® Print & Go — now customers can access and print documents directly from BlackBerry® smartphones and USB flash drives on its digital copy machines. The smartphone printing feature is enabled by the HP® ePrint mobile printing application and available on select Canon printing devices within the self-service area at the FedEx Office retail locations.

Available at more than 1,600 locations across the U.S., FedEx Office Print & Go will be offered at all U.S. stores later this year. This means extra convenience for business users who need to make quick prints of important documents from their BlackBerry smartphones!

Starting February 8 through to March 2, 2011, we’ll be hosting a series of BlackBerry® Innovation Forums across North America geared towards helping people make the most out of their BlackBerry mobile solution.

We’ll be travelling from New York City to Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Toronto, with a final stop in San Francisco, showing anyone who manages, develops, and architects the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server how to leverage their BlackBerry infrastructure to help increase mobile worker productivity – without increasing costs.

We will also be hosting our very popular Application JumpStart for Developers at the BIF events as well, where you can work directly with one of our Enterprise Mobility Architects to install and explore the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ development kit. You’ll actually leave the session with a functioning development kit!

Today, I wanted to share two video case studies that could prove valuable for enterprise users, as they show how financial and public services alike are utilizing the BlackBerry® solution in their businesses. In the above video, you can see how the Volkswagen® Financial Services Group improves risk management by implementing a BlackBerry solution and SAP.

For a look at how the BlackBerry platform works within public service, here’s the Bedfordshire Police talking about how they put more officers on the street while providing them more access to information on the go:

I’m looking forward to sharing more video case studies over the next couple weeks – is there something in particular that you’d like to see? Let me know!

Lotusphere 2011 is just around the corner, and we’re very excited to once again be part of this great event within the IBM® Lotus® Community. From January 30th to February 3rd, we’ll be in Orlando, Florida supporting the event at Booth 433/438 and our BlackBerry® Break-Out Room in Europe 5 – so if you are planning on attending Lotusphere, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Don’t miss the opportunity to find out more about BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express or the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino®, the BlackBerry® Clients for IBM® Lotus® Sametime, BlackBerry® Client for IBM® Lotus® Connections and BlackBerry® Client for IBM® Lotus® Quickr™, BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System, Chalk™ Pushcast™ Software, BlackBerry developer tools, BlackBerry® 6 OS and more! You can also stop by our booth to check out the BlackBerry™ PlayBook® tablet and see a demonstration.

As always, our BlackBerry Break-Out Room will be hosting our information-packed sessions, and will be also hosting our very first JumpStart developer session on Sunday, January 30th, plus our BlackBerry labs on Thursday February 4th. For more information on our sessions, email EnterpriseSalesPrograms@rim.com to receive a PDF file of the session brochure, and start planning your Lotusphere week now! Also, make sure to stay tuned to @BlackBerry4Biz on Twitter for our coverage during the event.

Additionally, if you’re looking for a great app to help out your Lotusphere 2011 planning, check out LSMobile – it’s a Lotusphere sessions app by The Turtle Partnership, based on the Domino Sessions Database by Ben Langhinrichs of Geniisoft. It includes all the session data with features such as:

Are you going to be at the show? Which session are you most excited about?

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/01/blackberry-at-lotusphere-2011/feed/1hilarya1Lotusphere_graphicBlackBerry for Business group on LinkedInhttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/01/linkedin-blackberry-business-group/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/01/linkedin-blackberry-business-group/#commentsMon, 17 Jan 2011 08:44:50 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=2176]]>

Hello BlackBerry® for Business Blog readers! We’re pleased to let you know we have expanded our social media presence with the launch of a new LinkedIn group. The BlackBerry® for Business group is the first official LinkedIn community from Research In Motion® (RIM®).

This community is an information and discussion hub for business users and decision makers. It’s a great venue to contribute best practices, advice, case studies and general knowledge as it relates to the BlackBerry platform in your industry. There will also be a good volume of discussion around the latest trends in mobility, computing and IT solutions.

The RIM team will be on hand to serve up discussion topics, add to the conversation and provide subject-matter expert’s opinions and answers where needed.

Join the BlackBerry for Business group today and invite your colleagues! We look forward to connecting with you and hearing what you have to say.

Today, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express Software was released for IBM Lotus Domino. This means that if your business is using Lotus email, you can now use this free server software to synchronize email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks between BlackBerry® smartphones and IBM Lotus Domino without compromising security.

Use mobile applications to access business systems behind the firewall

For IT administrators, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express includes:

A Web-based interface that allows remote administration and makes it easy to deploy applications over the air, connect and manage BlackBerry smartphones, and apply usage policies

Over 75 IT controls and policies, including the ability to remotely wipe a smartphone and enforce and reset passwords

Employee self-service tools for securing a lost or stolen device

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Domino Enterprise Server and Domino Messaging Server. It can support multiple Lotus Domino domain environments from a single Web-based administration interface and can be run in parallel with the premium BlackBerry Enterprise Server software for the same instance of IBM Lotus Domino.

At the recent BlackBerry® Innovation Forum event in London, Albert Gribben, the Procurement Manager for Northern Rail – a BlackBerry customer – spoke about the impact of mobility on their business. Here are the highlights of his talk!

As one of the largest passenger train operators in the UK – with 84 million passenger journeys last year across the north of England and 4,700 employees – it is imperative that we run a tight ship. Streamlined communications make an essential contribution to this.

In 2007, 1,300 train conductors had limited access to real-time information and paper-based business processes. We wanted to improve the quality of information our conductors were providing to our 270,000 daily passengers. When incidents occurred, multiple SMS messages were sent to each train conductor’s mobile phone with no confirmation of delivery. In addition, workflow approvals were taking 20 days. This was a costly and unreliable way to communicate with staff, and we looked around for a solution to these problems.

We chose to work with Research In Motion® (RIM) and implement the BlackBerry solution. Today, 34% of our staff now have a BlackBerry smartphone. Our in-house developers have been working hand-in-hand with BlackBerry partners – iQ Link and 10 seconds software – to trial a solution called Express Shopping Cart. Our mobile workers can now approve shopping carts/purchase requests on their BlackBerry smartphones, speeding up the Purchase-to-Pay process. In addition, train staff can now use their BlackBerry smartphone to book on-off, request annual leave, view their rosters for seven days and report faults.

Moreover, mobile email has proven to be more reliable, more secure and faster than texting. It is the surest way we have found to get information to conductors. With the BlackBerry solution we can trace delivery, which is especially important for safety-critical messaging and the control team can simply click and send a targeted message containing the right amount of information to a group of people in an area. In addition to replacing texting with mobile email, the BlackBerry solution gives the conductors access to live departure boards using the BlackBerry® Browser. They can tell the passengers where their connections are, if it’s on time, even what platform they’re going to go to.

The BlackBerry solution has been a resounding success in terms of return on investment, communications, user satisfaction and customer service. As the business case predicted, the BlackBerry solution was cost neutral in year one, and we’ve seen a significant return on investment in years two and three.

We ensured that employees were fully involved in the rollout, from the initial trial to feeding back on every step of the process. Since the rollout, we have seen a significant increase in customer satisfaction (based on customer surveys) and our employee satisfaction is at an all-time high, with 95% of users surveyed finding the BlackBerry smartphone “a very useful tool”.

We are currently reviewing opportunities to mobilize other business processes – that is, using SAP. We are also considering both off-the-shelf and in-house applications to fully mobilize our train crew and get even more benefit from the BlackBerry platform in use.

Have you seen the new BlackBerry® Style™ 9670 smartphone yet? It’s got a full QWERTY keyboard and trackpad with a flip form factor. It’s also the first BlackBerry smartphone without a touchscreen to be loaded with BlackBerry® 6 – so great features like Universal Search, Social Feeds and the new BlackBerry Browser are all there.

Before I came to Research In Motion® (RIM), I was the publisher of a small local magazine that kept me running around from early morning till late at night. I was so swamped with tasks every day that I felt like I didn’t even have time to investigate ways that I could save myself time or make the business more money. It was a strange predicament to be in – I loved what I was busy with, but I just felt so bogged down!

Yet instead of having to block hours of time at the beginning, middle and end of my day to respond to email, return calls, update our social media and review proofs, I COULD have done all of those things when I had a free moment before a journalist arrived or a customer was ready to chat with me. What I know now is that this is a common issue with many Small and Medium-sized business owners – ones who are balancing so many different roles in a day.

If any of this sounds like it’s something you’re dealing with, I hope that you’ll take just a bit of your day’s time to check out a couple of these new BlackBerry® Customer Success Stories. They are a quick read, and are real-life examples of customers who are using the BlackBerry® smartphone solution to provide better service to their clients, keep cash flow moving and stay up-to-date with the flow of their business. Taking a couple minutes now could save you hours of time later – and hopefully give you a little piece of mind that there are ways to make your day-to-day just a little bit more manageable.

California Burrito Company: a fast food restaurant chain in Latin America with over 100 employees. They’re using Documents To Go® for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Messenger™ (BBM) and Windows® Live Messenger to manage multiple locations and a growing staff while out of the office. Click here to see the full story.

Duncan and Craig LLP: One of the oldest law firms in Alberta, Canada with 140 employees. This company was already using BlackBerry smartphones, but they implemented a A4P®-Professional (link) to let their staff track billable hours from their devices to help them save time and money. Click here to see the full story.

You can also go here to check out more Customer Success Stories that are in your industry, or to watch a video featuring a few of our customers and how they’re using BlackBerry smartphones to do business better. There are new Customer Success Stories being released all the time, so I’ll let you know when more become available.

I’d love to hear about how you use BlackBerry smartphones to improve your business – please post a comment!